Historic collapse ends South Carolina chase for a bowl bid

Through the course of the 2025 season for the South Carolina Gamecocks, one issue persisted more than any. The team couldn’t finish games. Coming into Saturday, the Gamecocks had already played four games where they were within one score entering the fourth quarter.

Following Saturday afternoon, they had played another. They had lost another.

“We’re going through this now, and are hurt, but we’re gonna be stronger for it next season,” head coach Shane Beamer said. ” … I don’t know why we’re going through it, I don’t know why we’ve had this heartbreak that we’ve had, but we will be better and stronger and hardened because of it.”

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For the most part, the Gamecock game started similarly to how other South Carolina offensive drives had. South Carolina fans got a brief look at some trickery in the scheme of interim offensive coordinator Mike Furrey on a double pass play from Brian Rowe Jr to LaNorris Sellers, but that was all. By the end, the Gamecocks drove into the red zone, stalled out and kicked a field goal.

It is the second drive, however, that provided a version of Sellers that has been absent most of the season as he found Vandrevius Jacobs 50 yards downfield for six.

“I thought (Mike Furrey and the offensive staff) did a really good job of putting together a game plan,” Beamer said of the offense. ” … I thought Mike really did a great job of giving our guys on offense clarity on ‘Here’s how we’re going to attack A&M and here’s how we’re going to score points on offense.'”

After the fumble, the floodgates opened. Shortly following the Gamecock touchdown, Marcel Reed dropped back to pass and found Dylan Stewart immediately careening into him and he fumbled for the third time this season. But, for the first time, the opposing team got on it as Nick Barrett rumbled into the endzone for six.

“What a cool play that was for our whole team,” Beamer said.

The fumble was the first of three turnovers on the afternoon for Reed, who added two interceptions to the fumble.

The Gamecocks also entered the game as the only team in the nation without a 350+ yard game. By halftime, South Carolina had 312, 204 through the air and 108 on the ground. By that point, Kyle Field’s sold-out crowd turned silent as the Gamecocks scored 10 points in less than 90 seconds heading into the break.

Meanwhile, back in Columbia, S.C., the Gamecock faithful pinched themselves, wondering if this was the same team they watched the first two months of the season.

South Carolina did not play their best game in the first half, either. Drops mired the game for both teams, but no more than the South Carolina defense. South Carolina may have had two interceptions, but they could have had at least five.

Two separate occasions saw the Gamecocks drop sure pick-sixes in the first half by Jalon Kilgore. In the same drive as Kilgore’s second drop, Fred Johnson dropped one of his own on a tip drill.

Was it a sign of things to come? Who knows. For now, all that mattered was that the Gamecocks were dominating a top-three team.

“We talked about it at halftime. The scoreboard is irrelevant,” Beamer said. ” … This whole team in the locker room are going to be sick when we watch this tape because there’s a lot of missed opportunities that made it whatever it was at halftime … Could’ve easily been 42-3 if we just score touchdowns in the redzone and make some more plays.”

Despite the 27-point lead, its fans and team knew nothing is guaranteed in the Southeastern Conference, and like Jekyll and Hyde, South Carolina returned to its poor form from the past nine games right out of the break.

Coming out of the half, Reed returned to his Heisman hopeful form, throwing for 203 yards and three touchdowns in the third quarter. South Carolina, meanwhile, stagnated. Three of its four third-quarter drives went three or four-and-out.

It’s not like the play calling got conservative; the Aggies just made more plays than them, Sellers said.

“They came out there and did whatever they can get to gain momentum, and they had momentum in the second half,” Sellers said.

Overall, Jacobs thought the offense looked good under interim offensive coordinator Mike Furrey against the Aggies.

The touchdowns put Kyle Field’s 12th man back in it. When Reed found Nate Boerkircher for his third touchdown of the quarter, the stadium became deafening.

By the end of the third, South Carolina’s lead dwindled from 27 to six. The quarter encapsulated the entire season to date for the Gamecocks. They got off to a hot start, then tripped and rolled down a 50-foot cliff the rest of the way.

Five minutes into the fourth, South Carolina surrendered the lead to Texas A&M for the first time, 31-30. South Carolina continued to struggle all around, but they found light in a red zone fumble from Texas A&M. The Aggies gave them a chance.

However, much like the rest of the 2025 season, the Gamecocks could not capitalize. The lights went out on the Gamecocks’ bowl chances.

With a bowl off the table, the Gamecocks now look to “finish things the right way,” according to Beamer.

“Just play for ourselves,” Sellers said. “I mean, you’re still playing for the state.”

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